The Big Data & Software Intelligence Company

What CIOs/CTOs should know:

Communicating internal software quality Bridging the gap & avoiding dissatisfied coders

www.softwarediagnostics.com

Initial Situation External vs. Internal quality

Communicating internal software quality

Business managers ask for a

fast implementation of

features. Those have to work

without bugs, which

correlates with a high level of

external quality.

Developers are additionally

interested in a good

maintainability of the source

code. They strive for a high

level of external as well as

internal quality.

External quality

• Visible features

• Meet requirements

• Test cases fulfilled

KPIs (e.g. on number of bug reports,

testing activities, etc.)

Internal quality

• Maintainability

• Documentation

• Structure of source code

Lack of tools for explaining to non –

technical audiences

???

Assessing software quality

Result: Developers are encouraged to focus on external quality and neglect internal quality,

which results in higher costs for code development and maintenance.

IT Management

Internal quality does not necessarily correlate with external

quality

???

Communicate code quality?

Appreciation for features

Communicate features

Properties

Means to show

Appreciation

www.softwarediagnostics.com

Solution Approach A solution for communicating internal quality

Explaining slow development

IT Management has to mediate:

Business Managers ask why costs for

implementation projects are so high.

Developers feel misunderstood as they cannot

communicate the reason why development has

become so slow.

Working on complex source code is time

consuming and error-prone.

Software Maps provide a solution for visualizing

the internal quality of the software. The analysis

can be configured for displaying the code

complexity and show, at the same time,

whether it is a coding hotspot or not.

High “buildings” indicate highly complex source code.

Communicating internal software quality

Red “buildings” show code that is modified frequently.

Software Map Legend

Ground floor area: Real lines of code

Height of buildings: Level of complexity

Color: Amount of coding activities

www.softwarediagnostics.com

Solution Approach A solution for communicating internal quality

Demonstrating efforts to improve internal

quality

IT Management has to mediate:

Developers want to show their work done, which

does not relate to features.

Business Managers can hardly understand the

effects of and the need for such measures.

Improvements to source code quality cannot be

communicated.

Software Maps provide a solution for visualizing

improvements to the internal quality of the

software. Due to the improved structure, future

coding activities will be carried out faster and

with fewer bugs.

By making this effort and success visible, it can

be acknowledged and rewarded.

Communicating internal software quality

Software Map Legend

Ground floor area: Real lines of code

Height of buildings: Level of complexity

Color of building: Amount of coding activities

Color of Roofs & Stripes: Change in code complexity

Green “roofs and stripes ” indicate, that the code complexity has been reduced over the last 3 months.

High “buildings” indicate highly complex source code.

worse better

www.softwarediagnostics.com

Results Encouraging internal software quality

5

Thanks to the visualization as Software Maps, Internal as well as external quality

can be assessed and understood by all individuals involved, regardless of their

technical background,

Improvements in internal quality can be communicated and appreciated.

Henceforth, internal and external quality can be taken into account when

estimating budgets, and software quality is no longer solely a topic of the

software developers.

Results for Management

• More reliable cost estimation for project planning

• Increased productivity

• Reduced risk of software failure, hence reduced

business risk

• Faster time-to-market

Results for Developers

• Faster implementation of new features

• Less time consumed for altering source code

• Faster bug fixing

• Reduced risk of introducing new bugs

Communicating internal software quality

Delight!

Software Diagnostics GmbH Babelsberg Studios August-Bebel-Str. 26-53 14482 Potsdam, Germany

Phone E-Mail Web

+ 49 331 - 7062 340 mail@softwarediagnostics.com www.softwarediagnostics.com/en

Thank You for Your Attention

About Software Diagnostics

Software Diagnostics based in Potsdam, Germany is a spin-off of the Hasso Plattner Institute, the university centre of

excellence for software engineering. With Software Diagnostics, software development and software maintenance projects

become transparent and can be managed more effectively - based on the real systems’ implementations.

Contact Us